Electrical connector on a flexible carrier

ABSTRACT

A compliant, scalable, thermal-electrical-mechanical, flexible electrical connector. In one configuration, the flexible electrical connector comprises a flexible substrate, a first and second conductive layer, and a plating contiguously applied over the conductive layers and holes through the substrate. The first and second conductive layers are adhered to opposite sides of the flexible substrate and have a plurality of raised contact elements in registration with at least a subset of the holes. At least some contact elements on the first and second conductive layers that oppose each other are in electrical communication with one another by way of the plating.

This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/412,729 filed on Apr. 11, 2003.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of Invention

This invention relates to electrical connectors, and in particular, to acompliant, scalable, thermal-electrical-mechanical reconnectable andremountable electrical connector constructed on a flexible carrier.

2. Background of the Invention

Conventional electrical connectors used to connect components such asprinted circuit boards are fabricated using a wide variety oftechniques. A common approach is to use stamped metal springs, which areformed and then individually inserted into an insulating carrier to forman array of electrical connection elements. The insulating carrier istypically made of a rigid electrically non-conductive material. Otherapproaches to making electrical connectors include using anisotropicallyconductive adhesives, injection molded conductive adhesives, bundledwire conductive elements, and small solid pieces of metal typically in arigid carrier.

Two dimension flex circuits are readily available and well known in theelectronics industry. For example, common applications in which flexcircuits can be utilized are cell phones, board to board, and flat paneldisplays.

Flex circuitry is typically used to transport low and high-speed signalswithin the flexible carrier material. To access internal signals onemust connect to them through a series of vias or by surface mount padsand/or connectors.

As system density and performance have increased, so have the stringentspecifications for interconnections. One way high electrical performanceis manifested is in improved thermal characteristics and signalintegrity. This can be accomplished by designing the interconnectionssuch that they allow thermal planes or materials to be designed directlyinto the interposer or carrier. These features can then be directlyconnected to the contact elements. A similar argument can be given forthe addition of other circuitry and or discretes placed directly on orembedded internally to the interposer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram that shows a number of land grid arraystructures on flex material.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an enlarged sectional view ofthe contact arms for an exemplary Land Grid Array contact array.

FIGS. 3A-3D are schematic diagrams of enlarged perspective views ofdifferent exemplary contact arm designs.

FIG. 4 is schematic diagram of an exploded perspective view of aconnector according to one configuration of the invention.

FIGS. 5A-5D are flowcharts showing exemplary steps for making aconnector according to an aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is schematic diagram of a view of each layer of an exemplarystack up made according to the method shown in FIGS. 5A-5D.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention provides a compliant, scalable,thermal-electrical-mechanical electrical connector constructed on aflexible substrate, and in another aspect, discloses methods for makingsame. In employing a thin flexible substrate, the invention provides aconnector with compliance from not only the elastic contacts themselves,but also from the flexible substrate on which the contacts are mounted.The overall compliance of the connector is equal to the sum of thecompliance of the contacts and the compliance of the substrate. Withthis increased compliance, the connector can better accommodate unevencontact arrays to which it is matched. In this manner, desirableconnector properties can be achieved in a flexible carrier or circuitimplementation.

The connector takes advantage of a compound system of compliance (C1+C2)where C1 is the compliance of the thin flexible insulating substrate andC2 is the compliance of the array of compliant contacts formed on thesubstrate. This added aspect of compliance provided by the flexiblesubstrate allows the array of mating surfaces to behave much like afloating array of contacts. This approach allows the overall systemflexibility or compliance to be greatly increased over that of contactsbeing constructed on a rigid substrate.

The invention's use of a thin flexible substrate also eliminates theneed to pre-plate through holes in the substrate. Indeed, the reductionin thickness of the substrate minimizes the amount of electricalinterface between two electrical circuits. Since the contact arrays oneither side of the substrate are in close proximity to each other,separated by the thin substrate, the entire assembly can be plated afterthe contact arrays are adhered to the substrate creating a monolithicstructure. This approach minimizes material build-up in the contact, incomparison to pre-plated through holes. Such material build-up canresult in the contact being stiffer than desired, resulting in lesscompliance.

According to one aspect of the present invention, an exemplary connectorcomprises a thin flexible Kapton™ substrate bonded to contact sheetswith a low flow adhesion material, such as acrylic. The correspondingholes in the contact sheets and the substrate can be sized relative toeach other to provide an area in which excess adhesive can collect.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of increasingoverall contact density or of decreasing pitch by using top and bottomsurfaces to help maximize the surface area on which the contact elementscan be disposed. The present invention provides a connector having ahigh-density array (also referred to herein as “fine pitch”, referringto the distance separating the centers of nearest neighbor connectors)of deformable contacts that operate over a working distance of more than0.2 mm with an approximate low resistance and inductance of less thanfifteen mΩ and less than 0.5 nH, respectively.

The typical mechanical and electrical characteristics of the contacts ofthe invention described in application Ser. No. 10/412,729 include aworking range greater than 5 mils, a contact force of less than 30 g,wiping action having both horizontal and vertical components forreliability, a durability of greater than one hundred thousand cycles,temperature operability greater than 125° C., inductance less that 0.3nH, current capacity greater than 1.5 A, a scalable pitch less that 20mils, and a functional elasticity across a working range to pitch ratiobetween a range of about 0.4 to 0.8. Application Ser. No. 10/412,729also describes multiple methods for fabricating the contacts andconnectors.

The displacement range (elasticity) for the contacts described inapplication Ser. No. 10/412,729 is approximately between 0.12 mm and 0.4mm. The size range for the described flange springs is betweenapproximately 0.12 mm and 0.8 mm. Consequently, the elasticity-to-sizeratio is in the approximate range of between 0.5 and 1.0.

In accordance with the present invention, a flexible carrier providesadditional working range compliance. As described above, the combinationof the substrate flexure and the elasticity of the contacts enables aconnector to be even more accommodating to non-coplanarity. In thismanner, for example, a first array of contact elements and a secondarray of contact elements can share the same flexible substrate but beoriented in different planes with respect to each other.

Suitable substrates for the flexible carrier include, but are notlimited to, Kapton™ polyimide ½-5 mils in thickness, Mylar™ polyester2-5 mils thick, epoxy, and Teflon™.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary configuration according to an aspect of thepresent invention, with a Land Grid Array (LGA) structure 90 attached todesired points of use. In this example, LGA structure 90 is integratedinto flex circuitry 100. In this manner, any internal circuitry can bedirectly connected to internal signal layers. This configurationtherefore offers electrical benefits over other conventional approaches,in the form of: i) shielded contacts ii) matched impedances; and iii)matched electrical trace lengths through the connector.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of an exemplary connector 200 inaccordance with an aspect of the present invention, including showingsome exemplary dimensions of portions of the contact element 202. Thespacing between the distal ends of the facing spring portions 204 is 5mils, for example. The height of the contact element 202 from thesurface of the flexible substrate 100 to the top of the spring portionis 10 mils, for example. The width of a via through flexible substrate100 can be on the order of 10 mils, for example. The width of thecontact element 202 from the outer edge of one base portion to the outeredge of the other base portion can be 16 mils, for example. Contacts ofthis size can be formed in accordance with the method of the inventionas described below, allowing connectors with a pitch well below 50 milsand on the order of 20 mils or less.

According to one aspect of the present invention, mechanical propertiesof a contact element or a set of contact elements can be specificallyengineered to achieve certain desired operational characteristics. Forexample, the contact force for each contact element can be selected toensure either a low resistance connection for some contact elements or alow overall contact force for the connector. As another example, theelastic working range of each contact element can be varied. As anotherexample, the vertical height of each contact element can be varied. Asanother example, the pitch or horizontal dimensions of the contactelement can be varied.

FIGS. 3A-3D illustrate exemplary contact arm designs for either a BallGrid Array (BGA) or a LGA system. As mentioned above, these contacts canbe formed using a process similar to that used in PCB manufacturing tomake a spring-like structure, and can be heat treated before or afterforming.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing the assembly of anexemplary connector 400 in accordance with one configuration of thepresent invention. Connector 400 includes a first set of contactelements 402 that are located on a first major surface of a flexiblesubstrate 404 and a second set of contact elements 406 that are locatedon a second major surface of substrate 404. Substrate 404 may be made ofKapton™, which is available as a laminate of one layer of Kapton 404 asandwiched between two layers of acrylic 404 b, with the acrylic layersacting as adhesive joining contact elements 402 and 406 to Kapton layer404 a. Each corresponding pair of contact elements 402 and 406 ispreferably aligned with a through hole 408 defined by substrate 404.Through holes 408 of substrate 404 preferably are not pre-plated, asdescribed in more detail below.

The exploded view of FIG. 4 shows connector 400 during an intermediatestep in the manufacturing process. Therefore, FIG. 4 shows the arrays ofcontact elements 402 and 406 connected together on a sheet of metal ormetallic material from which they are formed. Subsequent manufacturingsteps pattern the sheets and remove unwanted portions, so that thecontact elements are isolated (i.e., singulated) as needed. For example,the metal sheet can be masked and etched to singulate some or all of thecontact elements.

In one aspect of the present invention, a connector is formed asfollows. First, flexible dielectric substrate 404 is provided, which hasan array of through holes 408. Although conductive paths can bepre-plated in through holes 408 between the top surface and the bottomsurface of substrate 404, such pre-plating is not necessary. Indeed,because of the minimal thickness of flexible substrate 404, contactselements 402 and 406 are in close proximity to each other when adheredto opposite sides of substrate 404, such that they can be convenientlyconnected in a subsequent plating process. In one example, substrate 404is Kapton™ with acrylic layers applied to both sides.

Corresponding to the array of through holes 408 in substrate 404, aconductive metal sheet or a multilayer metal sheet is then patterned toform an array of contact elements 402 and 406 including a base portionand one or more elastic portions. The contact elements, including theelastic or spring portions, can be formed by etching, stamping, or othermeans. The metal sheet 402 is attached to the first major surface of theflexible dielectric substrate 404 using, for example, an acrylic layerprovided integrally with the substrate itself. When a second set ofcontact elements is to be included, a second conductive metal sheet ormultilayer metal sheet 406 is similarly patterned and attached to thesecond major surface of the flexible dielectric substrate 404. The metalsheets can then be patterned to chemically remove unwanted metal fromthe sheets, so that the contact elements are isolated from each other(i.e., “singulated”) as needed. The metal sheets can be patterned byetching, scribing, stamping, or other means.

In an alternative configuration, the protrusion of the elastic portionscan be formed after the metal sheet, including patterned contactelements, has been attached to the flexible dielectric substrate. Inanother alternative configuration, the unwanted portions of the metalsheets can be removed before the contact elements are formed. Also, theunwanted portions of the metal sheets can be removed before the metalsheets are attached to substrate 404.

After metal sheets 402 and 406 are patterned to form individual contactelements and laminated to flexible substrate 404, the entire structurecan be plated (e.g., by electroless plating) to form conductive tracesin through holes 408, thereby connecting the contact elements throughholes 408 and over the short distance to the respective terminals on theother side of flexible dielectric substrate 404. In this manner, thepresent invention can avoid the added time and expense involved inpre-plating substrate 404 to form conductive traces through holes 408.In the final assembly, metal traces through holes 408 connect contactelements from the first major surface to opposing contact elements fromthe second major surface to form a monolithic structure.

Optionally, as shown in FIG. 4, conductive traces 410 can be pre-formedon the surface of substrate 404 in a ring-shaped pattern encircling eachthrough hole 408. This conductive ring 410 can enhance the electricalconnection between the contact elements on the metal sheet and theconductive traces formed in substrate 404.

As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, the methoddescribed above for forming connector 400 of FIG. 4 could be used aspart of many different manufacturing processes, which, for example,apply further plating depending on the requirements of a particularapplication. For example, as described in more detail below, afterlaminating substrate 404 (which is not pre-plated) and sheets 402 and406 together, chemically singulating sheets 402 and 406, and plating theentire structure to connect corresponding contact elements of sheets 402and 406 together, additional plating (e.g., hard or soft gold) could beapplied to the structure to satisfy specific performance requirements(e.g., contact finish requirements). Thus, notwithstanding theparticular methods described herein, the present invention should beconsidered broadly applicable to any application that can benefit from amethod or configuration that eliminates the need for pre-plating throughholes of a substrate.

Illustrating one exemplary implementation of the present invention,FIGS. 5A-5D provide flowcharts outlining an exemplary method 500 forforming contact elements. Method 500 also relates to batch fabricationof the contact elements using masking, chemical etching, forming, andlamination techniques. Method 500 produces a plurality of highlyengineered electrical contacts, capable of use in a separable connectorsuch as in an interposer. Or, the contacts can be directly integratedinto a substrate as a continuous trace that then functions as apermanent onboard connector. However, rather than using additionalmasking and etching steps to form the three dimensional spring portions,they are created in flat arrays and are then formed into threedimensional shapes.

As shown in FIG. 5A, method 500 begins in step 502 with the selection ofa base spring material for the sheet of contacts, such as berylliumcopper (Be—Cu), spring steel, phosphorous bronze, or any other materialwith suitable mechanical properties. The proper selection of materialenables the contact elements to be engineered to have the desiredmechanical and electrical properties. One factor in the selection of thebase material is the working range of the material. As used herein,working range refers to the range of displacement over which thedeformable contact portion can be mechanically displaced while meetingpredetermined performance criteria including, without limitation,physical characteristics such as elasticity and spatial memory andelectrical characteristics such as resistance, impedance, inductance,capacitance and/or elastic behavior. For example, assume that thedesired contact resistance is less than 20 milliohms and the maximumallowed contact load is 40 grams. If the contact element reaches aresistance range of less than 20 milliohms at 10 grams of load and thenis carried over to the maximum load of 40 grams for the beam member,while maintaining a resistance of less than 20 milliohms, then thedeflection of the contact results in between 10 grams and 40 grams ofload. The range of deflection and maximum resistance is the workingrange of the contact.

Optionally, in step 504, the sheet is heat treated prior to subsequentprocessing. Whether the sheet is heated at this point in the process isdetermined by the type of material selected for the sheet. Heatingraises the yield stress of the base spring material by solid stateprecipitation on the Be from the Cu matrix to provide desired mechanicalproperties for forming the contacts.

In step 506, a contact element is designed and is copied into an arrayform, for use in batch processing. The number of contacts in an array isa design choice and can be selected from a library of contacts that canvary depending on the requirements for the connector. The arrays arerepeated into a panel format, analogous to chips or die in asemiconductor wafer, resulting in a scalable design that lends itself tobatch processing. After the contact design has been completed (usuallyin a CAD drawing environment), the design is ported to a Gerber format,which is a translator that enables the design to be ported to afabrication facility to produce the master slides or film to be used inthe subsequent steps.

The panel format can have anywhere between one and a large number ofcontacts, because the use of lithography permits placing a high densityof contacts onto a panel. This high density of contacts provides anadvantage over existing methods in that a batch process can be used tochemically singulate the contacts, as opposed to stamping and formingindividual contacts. Method 500 permits a large number of contacts to bepatterned, developed, and etched at once.

In step 508, a lithographically sensitive resist film is then applied toboth sides of the sheet. A dry film can be used for larger feature sizesranging from one to 20 mils, and a liquid resist can be used for featuresizes less than one mil.

Using the artwork defined in step 506, both the top and bottom of thesheet are exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light and then developed to definecontact features in the resist, in step 510. Portions that are intendedto be etched are left unprotected by the mask. Using a lithographicprocess to define the contact elements enables the printing of lineswith a fine resolution, similar to that found in semiconductormanufacturing.

In step 512, the sheet is then etched in a solution specificallyselected for the material being used. Each particular material that canbe selected for the sheet typically has a specific etch chemistryassociated with it to provide the best etch characteristics, such asetch rate (i.e., how well and how fast the solution performs the etch).This is an important consideration in the context of throughputs. Theetchant selected also affects other characteristics like the sidewallprofile, or the straightness of a feature as seen in cross section. Inmethod 500, chemicals common in the industry are used, such as cupricchloride, ferric chloride, and sulfuric hydroxide. Once etched, in step514, the protective layer of resist is removed in a stripping process,leaving the etched features in the sheet.

In step 516, a batch forming tool is designed based upon the artworkdefined in step 506. In one configuration, the batch forming toolincludes a plurality of ball bearings arranged into an array format,preferably by being set into an array of openings in a support surface.The ball bearings can be of different sizes, to apply different forcesto the contacts, thereby imparting different mechanical characteristicsto contacts on the same panel. The curvature of the ball bearings isused to push the flanges away from the plane of the sheet. Other formingtool configurations may be used to form different contact shapes. Instep 518, the flanges of the contacts are then formed in all three axesby applying the forming tool to the sheet, to produce the desiredcontact elements in a batch process.

Optionally, in step 520, the sheet can be heat treated to stress relieveregions caused by the forming process. As with step 504, heating isdependent upon the material selected for the sheet. Based upon thematerial and the size of the contacts to be defined on the sheet,heating may be performed to obtain the physical properties desired foroptimal forming conditions.

In step 522, the sheet is then surface treated to enhance adhesionproperties for a subsequent lamination process. If there is inadequateadhesion, there is a propensity for the sheet to separate from asubstrate or delaminate. Several methods for performing the surfacetreating can be used, including micro etching and a black oxide process.The micro etching is used to pit the surface of the sheet, effectivelycreating a greater surface area (by making the surface rough andcratered) to promote better adhesion.

Prior to pressing, in step 524, a substrate comprising a combined lowflow adhesion material and flexible dielectric core (e.g., anacrylic-Kapton-acrylic sandwich) is provided with holes that are inregistration with and located beneath the flange elements. In accordancewith a significant aspect of the present invention, preferably thissubstrate is not pre-plated, i.e., there are no conductive tracesthrough the holes.

During pressing/lamination, there can be excess flow of adhesionmaterial up on the flange that can alter the contact properties, causingthe contact element to be unsuitable for electrical and mechanical use.In the event such undesirable flow occurs, the laminated stack can bede-smeared with, e.g., an O2 plasma. Alternatively, or additionally, theholes provided in the substrate can be made with a diameter somewhatlarger than a diameter of the openings in the copper sheet beneath theflanges, to provide “bleed” areas into which excess adhesive can flow.With such a configuration, even if some of the acrylic, for instance,were to ooze out from between the Kapton and copper sheet, the excessacrylic would not reach the flanges themselves, and thus not alter theirproperties. In any event, a cleaning or de-smearing step may be providedto ensure that any excess flow is removed, prior to plating.

FIG. 6 shows each layer of an exemplary stack up generated forlamination pressing, according to step 526. This arrangement could bealtered to have the contact elements inserted as internal layers. Layer1 is a top press plate material. Layer 2 is a spacer material with arelief hole over the spring contact element. Layer 3 is a releasematerial with a relief hole over the spring contact. Layer 4 is a topsheet of formed contact sheets (e.g., 402 of FIG. 4). Layer 5 is anadhesion material (e.g., acrylic 404 b of FIG. 4), preferably with arelief hole beneath the spring contact. Layer 6 is a core dielectric(e.g., 404 a of FIG. 4) with relief holes under and above the springcontact. Layer 7 is an adhesion material (e.g., acrylic 404 b of FIG.4), preferably with a relief hole above the spring contact. Layer 8 is abottom sheet of formed contact elements (e.g., 406 of FIG. 4). Layer 9is a release material with a relief hole below the spring contact. Layer10 is a spacer material with a relief hole below the spring contactelement. Layer 11 is a bottom press plate material.

In step 528, the stack up is preferably pressed under temperatureconditions optimized for desired adhesions and flow conditions for theadhesion material. During this operation, the top and bottom contactsheets are bonded to a core dielectric material. After a cool downperiod, in step 530, the stack up is removed from the press plates,leaving a panel comprised of layers 4-8 of FIG. 6.

In step 532, the panel surfaces and openings are then plated toelectrically connect the top and bottom flanges. This plating can be,for example, an electroless process, which contiguously deposits aconductive material on the top surface, into the through hole to connectboth sheets of contact elements, and then onto the sheet on the otherside of the substrate to form a monolithic structure. The platingprocess creates a route for an electrical current to travel from oneside of the board to the other. The thickness of the plating can bechosen to account for the current loads that the connector elements areintended to carry.

Next, in step 534, a photosensitive resist film is applied to both sidesof the panel. A pattern is exposed and developed to define theindividual contact elements in step 536. At this point in the process, aconnector such as connector 400 has been formed, which has a first arrayof contacts connected through plated holes to a second array ofcontacts. Depending on the demands of application for which theconnector is intended, the connector could be singulated at this point,without further plating.

To satisfy particular application requirements, however, method 500 cancontinue and apply further plating. Accordingly, in step 538, anappropriate contact finish type, for example, either hard gold or softgold, is determined. Hard gold is typically used in specificapplications where the numbers of insertions required are high, such asa test socket. Hard gold itself has impurities that cause the gold to bemore durable. Soft gold is a pure gold, so it effectively has noimpurities, and is typically used in the PCB or networking space, wherethe number of insertions is fairly low. For example, a package to boardsocket used in a PC (soft gold) will typically see on the order of oneto 20 insertions, whereas other technology using hard gold will see anumber of insertions between 10 and 1,000,000.

If the contact finish is a hard gold, a layer of resist will have beenapplied in step 534 covering both sides of the panel. The panel is thensubmitted for electrolytic Cu/Ni/Au plating via a hard gold process instep 548.

The resist is removed in step 550 and the entire panel is etched in step552 using, for example, electrolytic Ni/Au as a hard mask to completesingulation of the contact array. In step 554, final interposer outlinesare routed out of the panel to separate the panel into individualconnector arrays. Method 500 then ends at step 556.

If a soft gold finish is determined at step 538, then etching is used tocompletely singulate the contact elements in step 560. The resist filmis removed via a stripping process in step 562. In step 564, electrolessNi/Au, also known as a soft gold, is plated onto the panel, covering thecontact elements. In step 554, final interposer outlines are routed outof the panel to separate the panel into individual connector arrays.Method 500 then ends at step 556.

The soft gold finishing process singulates the contacts prior toplating. Ni/Au will plate only on metal surfaces, and provides a sealingmechanism for the contact element. This helps to prevent potentialcorrosive activity that could occur over the system life of the contact,since gold is virtually inert. Singulation prior to plating is a meansto isolate or encapsulate the copper contact with another metal,resulting in cleaner imaging and a cleaner contact, which has a lowpropensity for shorting.

According to other configurations of the present invention, a connectoris provided with contact elements having different operating properties.That is, the connector can include heterogeneous contact elements wherethe operating properties of the contact elements can be selected to meetrequirements in the desired application. The operating properties of acontact element refer to the electrical, mechanical, and reliabilityproperties of the contact element. By incorporating contact elementswith different electrical and/or mechanical properties, a connector canbe made to meet all of the stringent electrical, mechanical, andreliability requirements for high-performance interconnect applications.

According to alternative configurations of the present invention, theelectrical properties can be specifically engineered for a contactelement or a set of contact elements to achieve certain desiredoperational characteristics by selecting materials for forming contactsand through holes, their dimensions, pitch heat treatment and the like.For instance, the DC resistance, RF interference, the impedance, theinductance, and the current carrying capacity of each contact elementcan be varied primarily by material selection and mechanical properties.Thus, a group of contact elements can be engineered to have lowerresistance or to have low inductance. The contact elements can also beengineered to display no or minimal performance degradation afterenvironmental stresses such as thermal cycling, thermal shock andvibration, corrosion testing, and humidity testing. The contact elementscan also be engineered to meet other reliability requirements defined byindustry standards, such as those defined by the Electronics IndustryAlliance (EIA).

The mechanical and electrical properties of the contact elements can bemodified by changing the following design parameters. First, thethickness of the spring portion of the contact element can be selectedto give a desired contact force. For example, a thickness of about 30microns typically gives a low contact force on the order of 10 grams orless, while a flange thickness of 40 microns gives a higher contactforce of 20 grams for the same displacement. The width, length, andshape of the spring portion can also be selected to give the desiredcontact force.

Second, the number of spring portions included in a contact element canbe selected to achieve the desired contact force, the desired currentcarrying capacity, and the desired contact resistance. For example,doubling the number of spring portions roughly doubles the contact forceand current carrying capacity, while roughly decreasing the contactresistance by a factor of two.

Third, the shape of the spring portion can be designed to give certainelectrical and mechanical properties. The height of the spring portion,or the amount of projection from the base portion, can also be varied togive the desired electrical and mechanical properties.

The scalability of the present invention is not limited, and can beeasily customized for production due to the lithographic techniques usedand the simple tooling die used for forming the connector elements inthree dimensions.

The foregoing disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustrationand description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations andmodifications will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art inlight of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to bedefined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

Further, in describing the present invention, the specification may havepresented a method and/or process of the present invention as aparticular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method orprocess does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein,the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequenceof steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art wouldappreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, theparticular order of the steps set forth in the specification should notbe construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claimsdirected to the method and/or process of the present invention shouldnot be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written,and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences maybe varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

1-25. (canceled)
 26. A method for making an electrical connector,comprising: forming a plurality of through holes in a flexiblesubstrate; laminating a conductive sheet to the Flexible substrate, theconductive sheet having a plurality of contact elements in registrationwith the plurality of through holes, each of the contact elements havingcontact flanges extending away from the flexible substrate; andchemically singulating portions of the conductive sheet to isolaterespective ones of the contact elements.
 27. The method of claim 26, theconductive sheet comprising a first conductive sheet, and the methodfurther comprising laminating a second conductive sheet on a side of theflexible substrate opposite to the first conductive sheet.
 28. Themethod of claim 26, the laminating comprising disposing an adhesivelayer between the Flexible substrate and the conductive sheet, and themethod further comprising removing excess adhesive material.
 29. Themethod of claim 28, the removing comprising exposing the adhesivematerial to 02 plasma.
 30. The method of claim 26, the laminatingcomprising disposing an adhesive layer between the flexible substrateand the conductive sheet, and the method further comprising defining anarea between the Flexible substrate and the conductive sheet into whichexcess adhesive material can flow without reaching the contact elements.31. The method of claim 26, further comprising pretreating theconductive sheet prior to the laminating step.
 32. The method of claim26, further comprising laminating conductive sheets at differentlocations of the flexible substrate.
 33. The method of claim 32, furthercomprising mounting the flexible substrate so that the conductive sheetsat the different locations are arranged in different planes with respectto each other.
 34. The method of claim 26, further comprising platingthe conductive sheet and the plurality of through holes to form amonolithic structure.
 35. The method of claim 26, the plurality of holesin the flexible substrate being nonconductive through the flexiblesubstrate, and the method further comprising contiguously depositing aplating over the conductive sheet and with the plurality of holes.
 36. Amethod for manufacturing an electrical conductor on a flexiblesubstrate, comprising the steps of: etching a conductive sheet to definecontacts; applying a forming tool to the contacts to form the contactsin three dimensions; stacking the conductive sheet with etched andformed contacts on the flexible substrate; pressing together theconductive sheet with etched and formed contacts on the flexiblesubstrate while applying heat; depositing plating contiguously over thecontacts and within through boles in fie flexible substrate; andsingulating individual ones of the contacts.
 37. The method of claim 36,further comprising applying a conductive sheet with etched and formedcontacts on both surfaces of the flexible substrate.
 38. The method ofclaim 37, the through holes of the flexible substrate having noconductive paths before the plating is deposited, and the flexiblesubstrate having a thickness sufficient to enable the plating toelectrically connect opposing contact elements of the conductive sheetson both surfaces of the flexible substrate.
 39. The method of claim 36,further comprising surface treating the conducting sheet prior tostacking.
 40. The method of claim 36, further comprising applying acontact finish of gold to the contacts.
 41. The method of claim 36,further comprising arranging conductive sheets at different locations ofthe flexible substrate.
 42. The method of claim 41, further comprisingmounting the flexible substrate so that the conductive sheets at thedifferent locations are arranged in different planes with respect toeach other.
 43. The method of claim 36, the stacking comprisingdisposing an adhesive layer between the conductive sheet and theflexible substrate and defining an area in between the flexiblesubstrate and the conductive sheet into which excess adhesive materialcan flow without reaching the contacts.